Waukesha deer farm decimated by CWD
A Waukesha County deer farm has become the latest casualty of chronic wasting disease.
The 20 remaining deer at Red Wing Deer Farm in Waukesha were killed Aug. 3, according to the Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection.
Eight of the 20 tested positive for CWD.
The 9-acre Waukesha farm had been under quarantine since November 2021 when deer moved from its facility tested positive for CWD at an Eau Claire County ranch.
Then on Feb. 10 DATCP announced CWD had been detected in two 3-yearold bucks at Red Wing, setting plans in place for the depopulation.
Chronic wasting disease is a fatal neurological disease of deer, elk and moose caused by an infectious protein called a prion that affects the animal's brain, according to the CWD Alliance. The disease is thought to be spread predominantly through close animal contact but the prions are also stable in soil and water.
The disease has not been found to cause illness in livestock or humans. However, health officials do not recommend humans consume meat from a CWD-positive animal.
Since CWD was identified in the 1960s at a research facility in Colorado it has spread to 30 states, five Canadian provinces as well as Finland, Korea and Norway.
Regulations, enforcement and technology are failing to prevent the disease from affecting an ever-larger portion of the deer farming industry and the wild deer herd.
The disease progression has been met with a general lack of urgency and weak commitment among lawmakers, and governmental agencies have been unable to stop the spread with current tools and procedures.
Congress, for example, has failed to pass legislation introduced in the current and previous sessions intended to increase funding for CWD research and management.
Efforts to produce better tests for the disease, including to allow deer farmers to assess live animals before transporting them and for hunters to evaluate them in the field or at home, have languished.
Fortunately the two nightmare scenarios – human or livestock illness linked to CWD – have not played out.
Red Wing is the third state facility to have its herd killed off this year due to CWD.
The others were Van Ooyen Whitetails in Antigo and Maple Hill Farms in Gilman.
Van Ooyen Whitetails was depopulated May 18. None of the 47 deer that remained at the property tested positive for CWD. However, a 1-year-old doe at the farm had previously tested positive for the fatal disease. That animal had been obtained from Maple Hill Farms.
Maple Hill Farms, in turn, had its herd of 238 adult deer and 63 fawns removed the week of July 25, according to farm owner Laurie Seale. It was under quarantine since August 2021 due to the finding of CWD in an adult doe.
Test results of the animals killed at Maple Hill aren't yet available.
But the 301 deer killed makes it the largest depopulation of a captive cervid facility in Wisconsin history.
The owners of all three farms will receive federal indemnity payments funded by taxpayers.
The federal fund, managed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, allows reimbursements up to $3,000 per animal.
Red Wing Deer Farm in Waukesha had been licensed since 2002 and primarily raised animals for slaughter, according to DATCP.
Terms of the depopulation will prohibit the farm from holding deer for five years and during that period it must maintain fences and submit to routine inspections.
An epidemiological investigation was conducted at the farm in an effort to determine the source of CWD.
However none has been identified, according to DATCP.